Chloe Norman came into her shift at the Red Arrow Diner off Loudon Road in Concord right at 3 p.m. on a Wednesday in early November and found the eatery mostly empty. A few minutes later, an older couple sat down at a booth in her section and she swiftly poured one a fresh cup of coffee and the other a cool glass of chocolate milk.
The 41-year-old from Henniker started working part-time at the diner last winter, while also working as a lead bartender at another establishment in Concord. Those were the first two jobs she had held since being diagnosed with autism and ADHD in the last three years.
“I’ve never been able to hold down a job for more than a year,” Norman said. “I have a really high sensitivity, like a dysphoria, for justice, and so when I see injustices happening in the workplace, I’ve never been able to kind of shut my mouth.”
People like Norman who have physical or cognitive disabilities often struggle not only to find work, but to find success in their jobs long-term. Of people who have a work-limiting health condition, 27.1% participated in the workforce in July 2024, significantly below the percentage of people without a condition, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Norman said the way she operates is a Catch-22: Her ADHD makes it difficult to stand still but her autism makes her overwhelmed easily. Before her diagnosis, she didn’t understand why that happened to her. Now, she asks for accommodations at her workplaces in order to function throughout the day.
At Red Arrow, Norman often asks her manager, Lisa Bladecki, to approve short five-minute breaks to decompress throughout her shifts. She said Bladecki is more than willing to take over her shifts during those breaks, or if Norman needs the time off.
“I feel like that’s what people with autism, they need somebody to hear them,” Norman said. “Because when you come to a manager with your injustices, when you come to a manager with your sensitivity dysphoria that I have — where I think everybody’s talking about me and I can’t get out of my own head — she sits in the office and listens to every single thing.”
Bladecki has worked at Red Arrow since 2020 and was promoted to general manager in January 2023. She believes any individuals, with or without a disability, should be given the chance to prove themselves.
She said if she sees a person with a disability struggle in their assigned role, she works with them to find a better fit.
“I’m on the floor, observing, watching for body language, watching for, you know, the wide eyes, whether it be the guest or the employee — you can kind of sense that things aren’t going well,” Bladecki said. “I have deadlines that I have to meet, but I can’t sit by and just close the door and say ‘this is what I have to do.’ I can make things adjust if I see somebody that is in need of a break. I just go and take their spot for a few minutes.”
Not every manager is like Bladecki, Norman said. In February, while working at her job in the Concord establishment, she felt “extremely overwhelmed” during a busy shift and had to run to the bathroom to leave the situation. The next day, Norman was let go from that job.
Norman escalated the situation to human resources and was offered the position back, but she refused if she were to be under the same manager. Norman filed a charge of discrimination with the New Hampshire Commission for Human Rights but was told she had no case, since the employer offered to reinstate her position.
“That’s not fair,” Norman said. “I feel like there is a case I was discriminated against, but because I didn’t go back to see if I’d be discriminated against again, therefore I don’t have a case now.”
Norman said she typically works 50 to 60 hours per week at Red Arrow, which she admits is a lot on her plate but she doesn’t mind “putting in the work and doing long hours.” She’s currently being trained to be front of house, a step up in responsibility she’s been asking for for months.
When asked what qualities she’d like to see in more managers, Norman said it comes down to understanding.
“I think that they need to have a more open perspective to people’s needs,” she said. “I think that not one size fits all, and that, if an employee is coming and is really struggling, that they really truly sit and listen to what they’re saying. I think that managers have a way of just pushing people out when they are not fitting the mold, and we don’t fit the mold.”
